| Description | The 'Banner' was initially made by Barbara Steveni, in conjunction with Russian artists who had invited her to participate in an international exhibition 'Borschtsch' in St Petersburg, 1993. It was made as part of a performance to open the exhibition and to introduce the ideas of APG to the Artist's Union of St Petersburg. The form was inspired by the use of the ‘APG Multinationale’ 'Banner' that hung as a backdrop when APG held public events. Barbara Steveni attached pages from APG's Civil Service Memorandum of 1972, which outlined the basis of APG's government placements and became the basis of APG and O+I's work to 'reposition the artist in the decision-making processes of society, to a piece of unstretched canvas. The document was translated into Russian and added to the 'Banner' alongside words painted, by Russian artists, in the colour of Borschtsch: INGREDIENTS, RECIPE, METHOD, PREPARATIONS. Barbara Steveni was suggesting a strategy to negotiate and encourage the Russian artists to adopt the British recipe to 'create or cook' their own versions of APG. In 2001 it was shown as part of the ‘Antagonismes’ exhibition at Museu d'Art Contemprani Barcelona (MACBA) and was returned in a large wooden shipping art crate which Barbara Steveni saw as adding a new context and value and the 'Crate' became an integral part of the work. the 'Banner' (and Crate) was shown at the 'Independence' exhibition, South London Gallery, 2003; was performed at 'Produkt & Vision', Berlin 2005; shown at 'Between', South London Gallery, 2007 and featured in 'The New Economy of Art' publication by DACS, 2014.The work was acquired by Tate in 2019. The papers and photographs record some elements of the biography of this artwork. |